Rad help

[sniffleless]

So I have had a set of Rads for about a year now and I still can't get them dialed in at all. I just about have the bushings right but I think the wedging might be and issue. I have the front wedged about 10* and the rear dewedged at 15*. The whole thing feels kind of tippy. Not getting the turn I'm used to either. I've been riding a Skennett/Airflow set up. As it is I skate the Rads for my normal sessions, then come race day then I switch back to the Sken/Air combo so I can actually race.

So I'm looking for some advice. I don't want to hear any of that "personal preference" BS. I've tried playing with the wedging and the axles and the bushings. I think I have the bushings about right but I still just don't like the Rads. But I'm trying too.

Help me like my Rads.

If you feel like sharing your set up and what works for you would be great.

[Topsider]

So I have had a set of Rads for about a year now and I still can't get them dialed in at all. I just about have the bushings right but I think the wedging might be and issue. I have the front wedged about 10* and the rear dewedged at 15*. The whole thing feels kind of tippy. Not getting the turn I'm used to either. I've been riding a Skennett/Airflow set up. As it is I skate the Rads for my normal sessions, then come race day then I switch back to the Sken/Air combo so I can actually race.

So I'm looking for some advice. I don't want to hear any of that "personal preference" BS. I've tried playing with the wedging and the axles and the bushings. I think I have the bushings about right but I still just don't like the Rads. But I'm trying too.

Help me like my Rads.

If you feel like sharing your set up and what works for you would be great.

Hey buddy. For hybrid and TS I use 15 deg up front. Also use 3/8" axles sometimes 5/8". rear axles 1/4" almost always. I do not dewedge the rear at all, this is true for the wing and the tail (older one). If you are using the tail with the swing arms set them to lowest setting or the setting that is closest to the deck bottom. The geometry will then be identical to the wing if the same width axles are used.

I use a Radikal clear bushing bottom on the front that I made into a cone and use a full barrel white khiro top. I am 175lbs. and this works real well for me. The rear bushings black bottom and either green or black top' black/black GS, black/green all else. There no BS...

Now, you have to work that spherical bearing on the front hangar until it's really loose. Sit and read a nice long book or watch a movie and get a nice axle bolt or long piece of metal rod and work that thing in. You want it to flop side to side w/o any bushings and off the baseplate. When gravity can flop it over then it's ready. If you have a dremmel you can use that too..., just be careful.

[sniffleless]

Thanks. That is real helpful.
I spent most of Saturday afternoon tweaking and riding across the driveway and back. It's getting there.

I don't care for the Rad bushings too much. All the ones I have just have no life to them. That is okay for the rear but on the front I just don't like them. I'm running a yellow Stim bottom and blue Venom barrell on the front and green Stim bottom and yellow Venom barrel on the rear. this is feeling pretty good. I wish the blue Venom was just a tad bit softer. Hopefully I'll get to run some cones on this set up soon.

The Rad rear feels pretty good. I think most of my problems is coming off the front truck. It just isn't turning right. It just doesn't do it for me. So I'm still playing with it.
I'm just getting frustrated with these trucks.

[Momona Boe]

I feel ya' Sniffy

I rode some Rads at Woodward last week and I didn't care for them - which is nice 'cause I can't afford them

I too dig the Bennett/Airflow combo

The Rads feel stable up front, but they have a weird twitchiness to them. Best I can describe it is that Rads steer, but Bennetts turn. Make sense?

[sniffleless]

Good so I'm not the only one.
I ran the Rads at the Sizzler and I stunk up the place. Totally feeling the steer/turn comment.
I ran the Skennett/Airflow at the St Louis race and felt I was running pretty well. I had the chance to get these Rads and now I just want to unlock the potential in them.
I ran the Skennett up front and Rad in back in one race and that felt pretty good to me.
Am I just spoiled by the deep turning I get from Bennetts?

[tedzepplin]

I have two friends with boards with Radikals and they both feel great. Get them set up right and they are a top notch truck. My guess is you need more wedging up front. try 15 degrees and then back off a little if that's too much. 15 degrees of dewedging on the rear sounds like too much to me. My friends with Radikals dewedge only a few degrees.

I don't have Radikals, but here are photos of my GOGs so you can look at the angles I have my kingpins set at. I like how the front is. I think I might still need to adjust the angle on the rear - maybe dewedge a little more. The wedge on my rear truck is only to compensate for the kicktail to make the rear truck the same height as the front. I have green Radikal bushings in the rear and clear Radikal bushings in the front. they've been filed down in size.

[sniffleless]

Actually when you figure in the rocker angle in my board the front truck is wedged more like 12* at its furthest front setting. I tried the rear flat and at different angle. I like the feel of it weged like it is. Mostly I am just having problems with the front truck. I will have to try a little more wedge on the front though.

[samhell]

I only have Radikal front Dragonclaw, I run it at 13 degrees.
With Hourglassed Venoms, red and orange on the bottom.
I have a home made Skandal 106mmm rear dewedged 10 degrees,
with a really wierd bushing setup and I love this setup.
I've grown to really love my Radikal, to me it's so responsive and twitchy
for tight slalom...

[sniffleless]

I had a good session today on the Rads. I think one thing that has kept me from getting used to them is they do skate quite a bit different than other slalom trucks I have skated. They just feel different. But I have a good bushing combo going and after a few tweaks of the wrench and I was running okay today. Not quite as fast as I would have liked but I am still feeling these trucks out. But I am on my way.

Ran a good hybrid and a fun tight course on them today. A few tweaks of the wrench on the trucks and a quick switch of wheel base and I made the switch from one course to the other fairly well. It was a good day.

[Parallel Man]

Well, let me know when you finally get fed up with it. I can probably scrounge up $30 for it so you can go get yourself a good Bennett.

[Topsider]

Well, let me know when you finally get fed up with it. I can probably scrounge up $30 for it so you can go get yourself a good Bennett.

Do not listen to that man! He buys Rads from unsuspecting skaters so he can use them to store his Rad bushings. The man has no soul...

[Parallel Man]

Do not listen to that man! He buys Rads from unsuspecting skaters so he can use them to store his Rad bushings. The man has no soul...

Didn't I give you . . . one?

[sniffleless]

Well, let me know when you finally get fed up with it. I can probably scrounge up $30 for it so you can go get yourself a good Bennett.

I already have a good Bennett thank you. Better than good actually. A Skennett!
Anyway the Rads are starting to come along. I still prefer the Skennett/Airflow but the Rads are running better than my Tracker set ups at this point.

[Topsider]

Didn't I give you . . . one?

Cruel and unusual punishment - no, you didn't and don't be lookin' for $25 out of me either. Look, you better show up for a race once and a while or you yourself will be a legend. Are you going to kentucky? I am not able to go to Antrim this year and will likely drive down to Lenny's gig.

[sniffleless]

Cone Fest is a nice race. If you haven't signed up you better be quick. Lenny set up a 40 entry limit. It's already up to the mid 30's right now.
I'm just sayin'.

[Parallel Man]

Cruel and unusual punishment - no, you didn't and don't be lookin' for $25 out of me either. Look, you better show up for a race once and a while or you yourself will be a legend. Are you going to kentucky? I am not able to go to Antrim this year and will likely drive down to Lenny's gig.

I was in marching band in college. Every year during Homecoming we have an Alumni Band (rehearse a little in the morning, learn a little drill, march a little pregame, play in the stands, march a little at halftime, play some more, hang out, drink too much.) Homecoming the past five or six years has ALWAYS been on the same weekend as Antrim AND Kentucky. I feel bad because every year I send Lenny a note telling not again this year. So, no racing that weekend for me.

It used to be the same way with Rick Stanziale's race in Athens. He'd always schedule the Red Clay Cup when Georgia was on the road and there wouldn't be any football crowds. So where were the Bulldogs always on the road? In COLUMBIA playing Carolina. Like a fat lot of good that did me.

Oh, well. Maybe one of these days I'll get tired of college football? (Don't hold your breath.) See ya' at Dixie.

[sniffleless]

I have continued to try and get these Rads dialed in and have made some progress. More bushing swaps and abandoning what I thought was working or what wasn't working. The Stims went out. The protruding rim was felt to be stopping the hanger. So I went back to some homemade bushings and that worked for me. I went back to the Rad bushings in the back. Not feeling quite right but better. Although I did just get some Eliminators today. So I'll be trying those out. I feel I'm almost ready to race these trucks again.

[Lenny]

I'll probably be picking your brains as well. I broke down and ordered a Rad after skating some of the local crews' recently. Hopefully I can get it dialed in before Dixie.

[JBH]

The Stims went out. The protruding rim was felt to be stopping the hanger. So I went back to some homemade bushings and that worked for me. I went back to the Rad bushings in the back. Not feeling quite right but better. Although I did just get some Eliminators today. So I'll be trying those out. I feel I'm almost ready to race these trucks again.

Just saw this thread for the first time today, or I woulda chimed in long ago. The fat Stim was your problem on the front truck, for exactly the reason you describe. If you want a deeeeep turn on your front Rad, a fat bushing will make it damn near impossible to achieve--even a softie like a 75A clear Rad. Dump that sucker, or lathe it down.***

I suggest either a Reflex pink (77A) or Venom blue barrel bottom, and some sort of coned or reshaped top bushing like a Reflex, Venom or Rad. Don't dick around with Khiros unless that's all you've got. Go for the rebound.

Rad bushings are actually not bad for the rear truck precisely because of the turn-limiting effect the fatter bushings provide. I typically rode black/green or green/green. Eliminators may be an even better option because the small "donuts" give you a bit easier initial turn (helpful for getting up to speed) while still being fat enough that you don't easily overturn on the rear. And if you try all that and STILL don't like the feel, try green/green Venom barrels. I haven't actually ridden that on Rads, but I like the feel that combo on my GOG rear. But the other suggestions are probably better for what you want.

***Stimulator urethane is (for me) stupendously hard to trim down. I have no trouble at all using a Dremel and grip tape/sandpaper (or sidewalk) to trim down other bushings, but the Stim thane just doesn't abrade away the same at all. Slow, fast or in between, it just kind of got gooey and didn't shrink down or turn to dust the way other bushings did. I finally just said fcuk it and gave up. I know Geezer-X did lathed Stims a few years back, but I'll be damned if I know how he did it.

[sniffleless]

Yes the Stims just didn't do it. I had always heard everyone talk up the Stims for slalom and that just didn't work.

I got the Eliminators yesterday. I put those in and so far that feels fine. The rims on those aren't really big like on the STims. I haven't had a chance to run cones yet but it the Elims feel better than anything else I have tried. If these don't work I will go with the Venoms.

My Reflex bushings I got are all cut too tall to use on my Rads. Well one of the barrels is cut right but the rest are all tall. They work great in my Bennetts though. I like those Reflex bushings. Right up there with the Venoms for me. Although with the taller barrels I had thought about trying to round the top like the Rads for the spherical bearings. I figure I have a little room for error.

Even with the Stims I had gotten my RAds to run pretty well. Just not contest caliber. But I think I am on the right path. Maybe by Dixie. I hope to give the Elims a test ride this weekend.